The personal information of thousands of Jaguar Land Rover staff members has been harvested by attackers, putting them at risk of potential fraud.
According to the British news outlet The Telegraph, the car manufacturer has informed affected workers that their payroll information was compromised when the company was targeted by a cyberattack in September.
“While investigating, we have unfortunately identified that there has been unauthorized access to some personal data we process in the context of employment and some information needed to administer payroll, benefits, and staff schemes to employees and dependents. This includes data of ex-JLR team members that has been stored,” the company said in an email.
The nature of the data has not been disclosed, but it may include information such as names, addresses, bank account details, National Insurance numbers, tax codes, and salary details.
How many workers have been affected also remains unclear. Jaguar Land Rover has over 38,000 employees. Although there’s no evidence of any personal information being misused, some of them have been warned to be vigilant for identity fraud and to ensure they use only strong and unique passwords.
“We are committed to supporting all current and former employees and contractors through this period, and we have set up a help line and arranged for access to credit and/or identity monitoring services. We are very sorry that the incident happened and would like to thank everyone connected with JLR for their continued support,” a spokesperson for the car company said in a response.
The cyberattack that took place in September heavily crippled Jaguar Land Rover’s production activities, forcing it to shut down factories in Halewood, Solihull, and Wolverhampton. Due to the production shutdown, employees were asked to stay at home.
To make sure that the British car manufacturer and other companies in the supply chain wouldn’t go bankrupt or have to lay off workers, the British government backed the car manufacturer with a £1.5 billion loan. Secretary of State for Business and Trade Peter Kyle stated that the loan will be repaid within five years.
The Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC), an independent, non-profit organization that analyzes and categorizes cyber events that impact organizations in the United Kingdom, calculated that the cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover is the “most damaging event” in the history of the UK.
According to the Bank of England, the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew significantly less than expected due to the cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover.
The attack is attributed to Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters, the same group accused of attacking Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.
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